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| Mayer David Hanks and his Photo Op! |
By Joseph Wiszowaty
Driving through Sauk Village these days would bring tears to
many who once grew up or raised their families in this small community in the
Southeast Suburb of Chicago. The first
question they may wonder is what went wrong?
Today, according to Cook County statistics for 2015 there are 480 vacant homes in Sauk
Village and what’s worse is that Cook County projects vacant homes
to grow to 532 in the next five years.
Well, yes the economic downturn of 2008 really took its toll
on the home values. As many folks
mortgaged their homes to the rafters with the cheap cost of money, as values
fell investors found opportunity for rental properties. Many simply walked away from their homes or sold out in short sales to investors who in turn rented those homes out to tenants fleeing the City of Chicago when former Mayor Richard Daley closed the housing projects.
They say hindsight is 20/20, well we can see what went
wrong. As values dropped drastically in
2009, the Federal Government through the Department of Housing and Urban
Development began offering communities millions of dollars in Neighborhood
Stabilization Programs. Many communities
took advantage of these NSP dollars to help shore up their housing markets from
2009 to 2012. Now most of the NSP monies
are dried up and Sauk Village has been left out in the cold.
Neighborhood
Stabilization Program (NSP) grant is to support the redevelopment of
foreclosed, vacant, or abandoned property or land through demolition, new
construction, acquisition, and/or rehabilitation activities. The primary goals
of the program are to stabilize communities disproportionately affected by the
foreclosure crisis and to create or preserve affordable rental or ownership
housing for low- and moderate-income households. Cook County has distributed millions of
dollars in NSP money to municipalities.
Now Mayor David Hanks, served as Chairman of the Housing
Authority from 2009 to 2012 when he became acting mayor. During his time in charge of the Village’s
housing crisis, Hanks and most of the Village Board were too self absorbed with
playing politics with then Mayor Lewis Towers instead of addressing the housing
crisis and obtaining NSP dollars to shore up the Village’s housing crisis. Many communities used NSP money to encourage
homeownership opportunities, Sauk Village received $0 in NSP money to help.
Shortly after becoming Acting-Mayor, Hanks began to campaign
for election, after stating publicly he would not seek election, that they were
so busy fighting Lewis Towers that they were “blinded” by the housing crisis
and didn’t see the eyesores of the vacant and abandoned houses. ***CLICK HERE TO VIEW***
fast forward to 2:58 and listed till 3:33
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| 2014 |
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| 2009 |
What is Hanks’ plan for Housing you may wonder as we continue down the path of further deterioration? Well we wonder too and to date there has been no plan put out publicly. While Housing Commissioners, exceeding their mandate, have been working on housing issues by identifying vacant properties, there has been no long range plan. The Village received a grant through the Illinois Housing Development Authority to secure and maintain vacant and abandoned houses, the housing commission identified only 100 out of the 480 vacant homes in which grass mowing would be done in 2014. Unfortunately, the grant money was for reimbursement of monies spent by the Village and controversy ensued when there was no money budgeted for the grass mowing initiative in 2014. As a result of Hanks’ misstep on the budgetary oversight last year, the Village Trustees had to borrow money from the water fund in order to make payments. Because of poor planning the IHDA was not prepared and many delays and changes happened with the grant program as a result of the change in administrations to Governor Bruce Rauner, the money has now been frozen.
What made matters worse, was the 2015-16 Budget that Hanks and his Bobble Heads ramrodded through, did not include a single penny toward any housing initiatives nor any grass mowing for that matter. But he found $200,000 to hire just 2 new people, and yes they would be "outsiders" of course, how ironic!
Some housing commissioners have said on social media that
resident’s should take up the slack and mow vacant properties and volunteers are
needed to pitch in to maintain these properties, I beg to differ! While it’s a “neighborly” thing to do, it
exposes those individuals to danger and liability. A stronger emphasis on Code Enforcement and
a more aggressive and proactive approach is sadly missing from this
Administration. This administration is
so focused on politics and less on policy that it continues to be “blinded” by
the blight which has taken hold of Sauk Village, and according to Cook County
will remain at least until the next administration.
In fact, this administration is all about “propaganda” as illustrated in the propaganda video Mayor David Hanks has on the Village’s official website ***CLICK HERE TO VIEW*** Can you believe this?
Residents need to start asking David Hanks the “tough
questions” and stop telling him, like one of his Bobble Heads, Trustee Lynda
Washington, “you’re doing a fine job”.
Really Lynda? I beg to differ! Maybe now they will not be "blinded" by this housing crisis any longer!
Housing Opportunities:
This one Won a HANKY Award! ------***22517 Yates Avenue****
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